Vehicles typically have movable hinged parts such as a hood and trunk lid. The hood is typically opened to provide access to the engine compartment of the vehicle for inspection, regular preventative maintenance as well as more serious repairs. When closing the hood, it is typical to allow the hood to close under its own weight or to provide additional closing force to the hood causing the hood to “slam” rather than to gently close. In some cases, the hood must be slammed closed to cause the hood latch mechanism to engage and latch the hood in the closed position. A fortuitously-placed spring is typically provided and positioned to absorb a portion of the shock energy of the slamming hood.
A vehicle hood is typically a movable vehicle body panel characterized by a length and width that are much greater that the panel thickness. The vehicle hood is generally assembled from stamped and formed sheet metal panels and will typically tend to flex to some extent when it is abruptly closed. In cases where the dimensional tolerances between the hood and other body panels are tight enough and the hood is slammed closed, portions of the hood may flex or reactively deform enough to allow the hood to directly contact other vehicle components such as a show surface of a vehicle grille where contact is not intended by design. The continuing drive for higher quality and closer tolerances between vehicle body components may result in a reduction in the gap or spacing between the hood and other vehicle body components, improving overall vehicle body appearance while possibly increasing the likelihood of unintended contact between, for example, the vehicle hood and grille when the hood is slammed closed.